Product: Yankee Candle Black Cherry tartlets.
Purchased: Ebay but you can purchase online and most probably on your high street.
Price: £1 but prices do vary
Size: 32g and burns for around 8 hours.

~~~Yankee Candle, the company~~~

Having watched the founder of Yankee Candle on TV I was interested to hear that the idea came after he made his mum a candle as a young boy by melting down his crayons. He wanted to so badly make his mum a gift that she would love and only having crayons (as he was young) he turned something so obvious into something magnificent.

As he grew the idea evolved and he wanted to continue to make candles but ones that actually smelled great, ones that left a gorgeous scent within the home rather than burnt wick and stale wax and as they say the rest was history.

Yankee Candle is a strong brand that is known across the world as a company specialising in home fragrance products and gifts. Unlike other brands Yankee Candle's fragrance in my opinion cannot be beaten. I've yet to find a candle or tart that matches up to the strength of Yankee and have scents so true to the real product.

This quote was taken from the Yankee Candle website:

'At Yankee Candle we do understand that when a Customer burns a fragrance Candle they expect to be able to visualise the 'real' thing, well with Yankee Candle we guarantee that you can, that is what Yankee Candle is about!'

I feel that they live up to this quote and then some.

~~~Why I purchased this product~~~

I have been a customer of Yankee since the start. Over the years my fragrance favourites have changed and altered and I am finding some scents I now love I originally hated and vice versa. Black Cherry is not one of those scents and has been one that I have stayed true to throughout my Yankee journey (along with the Lilly scent)

As a child I loved cherries and everything cherry scented and cherry flavour. I remember having a doll that smelled of cherries and having a dress with cherries on it. My lip balm was always cherry flavoured and my mum used to buy me a children's cherry scented perfume from Avon many moons ago.

As I've grown up I have struggled to find a cherry home fragrance that didn't smell chemically, cheap and nasty that is until I came across the Yankee Candle Black cherry range while in a local store called Rejects. (They sell home décor items and gifts)

When I saw the cherry tarts and sniffed them I was taken back to my youth and I just had to have them. I purchased one initially scared that it would disappoint me once melted as many other brands had.


~~~Yankee Candle tartlets~~~

The tarts are like solid pie tart shaped with fluted edges and are made of solid wax. The Black Cherry is coloured like Black Cherries and it comes with a cellophane type see through wrapper with the Yankee candle sticker on the top.

Unlike the candles the tarts have no wick so have to be warmed up. You can purchase specific Yankee candle tart warmers which are similar to standard oil burners but have a deeper space on the top. You place your tart in the top of the burner and light a tea light and pop it underneath, the heat from the tea light warms up the tart and it melts into a gorgeous scented pool of melted wax. Once the tea light is blown out it returns back into a solid until next time it is warmed.

The tarts last for around 8 hours' worth of melting according to the Yankee website but I have found with the stronger scents such as Black Cherry that I can burn these for a little per day and still smell the fragrance around 4 weeks later (although it fades over time )

~~~The Scent~~~

Black Cherry is a very true scent and smells like you have got a fresh batch of juicy, ripe black cherries picked on a summers day and warmed them in a pan to make a homemade sweet Black cherry pie. It's not one of those scents that you have to take a minute to figure out what it is and is definitely un-mistakable.
The scent is one I will never grow bored of and love my house to smell off, it suits all seasons and my sons now also love this scent.I hope in time it will revoke childhood memories for them as it does for me.

Yankee Candle use real extracts unlike its competitors and use the maximum allowance of essential oils and extracts that is allowed within the legal allowance. Because they use real essential oils and extracts the scent is so much more concentrated than a lab produced scent that has to work harder. I feel that chemical scents within a warm base tend to change and are completely neutralised in most products other than Yankee.

~~~Uses~~~~

Yankee have product to match most uses within the home and outside of the home. The tart itself as one main use and that is to be warmed within an oil or tart burner although I do tend to put the 'leftover' bits of wax in an old stocking and put it in my underwear drawer or in a voile baggy and hang in my wardrobe so that my clothing smells delicious.

I have also mixed scents before with the leftover bits of wax to give them an extra bit of life, Black cherry is one I never need to give a boost to but I use others such as the Lilly and Green grass together and the lemon and cookies together for example.

~~~Other products~~~

You can find many other products with the Black Cherry scent such as:

* Large Jar Candle - This is a 22 oz glass jar filled with scented wax, you light the wick and burn like a normal candle. The candle lasts for around 110-150 hours burning time.
* Medium Jar Candle - Just like the large jar candle but this is a 14.5 oz jar and burns for around 65-90 hours.
* Small Jar Candle - As above but this is a 3.7 oz. jar and burns for around 25-40 hours.
* Tarts - As described and last for around 8 hours but in my opinion up to 4 weeks.
* Reed Diffuser -This includes a thick glass bottle and 12 wooden reeds and an 88ml bottle of fragrance. The wooden reeds get saturated in the scent and the scent makes it way around your home. These are great if you don't like candles but give continuous fragrance so make sure you like the scent first of all.
* Car hanging jar - These also last for around 2 months and work in the same way as the magic tree car hangers. These look like the candle jars and are made of thick scented cardboard.
* Car Fragrance Vent Sticks - These come in packs of 4 and each 'stick' lasts for around 2 weeks. So 2 months fragrance per pack.
* Samplers (votive candles) - These are similar to votive candles but burn for around 15 hours.
* Tea Lights - These are like standard tea lights but come in clear cups and smell like the other candles. They normally come in various sized packs.

~~~Overall Opinion~~~

I love the brand and what it stands for, it inspires me that the smallest of ideas can become huge and I love that they use essential oils and extracts over chemical lab scents. (After all we have enough chemicals in our products nowadays)

I use to purchase the jar candles before having children but now that I have young children I feel safer having the tarts on and placed in an oil burner at the back of a worktop away from little hands.

I also love to save pennies here and there and find that the tarts are very economical as they last for ages and I tend to get around a months' worth of fragrance from a £1 tart. (Bargain) I also use the Black Cherry car jars (the ones that hand like the old tree's) and have used the Black Cherry gel car jar (although the scent doesn't last as long as the cardboard ones).

Black Cherry is a scent that I love, will always love and hope that Yankee never change or retire, believe me if they did I would be absolutely gutted. Although they cost more than other brands I feel they save money in the long run as you don't have to purchase other candles or fragrances to make up for ones that you don't like or don't throw their scent very well.

They also have a product to suit all fragrance tastes such as the jar candles (small, medium and large anyone), reed diffusers, tea lights, samplers (like votive candles), travel sprays, cylinder and pillar candles and more.

I award this particular fragrance the full 5 stars as i simple cannot get enough of this little bit of wax!